


Milk

by SoManyFandoms



Category: Captain America (Movies)
Genre: Bucky Barnes Remembers, Bucky Barnes's Plums, Gen, Steve accidentally triggers a memory, The Winter Soldier's memory
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-10
Updated: 2018-06-10
Packaged: 2019-05-20 11:45:36
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 508
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14894031
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SoManyFandoms/pseuds/SoManyFandoms
Summary: Anything can be a trigger for a memory.





	Milk

“Do you want some milk?” Steve asks, carton in one hand, smiling over his shoulder as he reaches with his other towards the cupboard where they keep the glasses. The smile slides off his face. “Buck?”

Bucky’s frozen, eyes on Steve’s left, and then he’s running, past the kitchen, down the hallway, and Steve’s just set the milk down when he hears Bucky losing his dinner.

What the hell?

Steve moves quickly but not silently down the hall, stops in the doorway, “Bucky”, and then he’s sliding to his knees, holding back hair, becoming a solid, unmoving object when Bucky leans back, breathing heavily as tears drip onto Steve’s forearms where they cross Bucky’s chest.

They stay kneeling until Bucky’s breath evens out, until the tears have stopped, until Bucky is a heavy weight getting heavier.

Steve doesn’t say anything, doesn’t move. Bucky knows he doesn’t have to talk about it, that Steve will stay as long as he needs.

“I, I was sitting in Pierce’s kitchen. He asked me if I wanted some”, Bucky swallowed, “milk. His maid walked back into the house and saw me. She’d forgotten her phone. Pierce shot her.”

Steve wishes the man in question was alive so he could kill him, instead he tightens his hold, cheek against Bucky’s hair. He helps Bucky up, waits until Bucky’s brushing his teeth to put the milk in the bottom of the fridge door, and quickly dices some plums before snagging a damp washcloth from the bathroom.

Bucky is sitting against the headboard, dressed in a white singlet and a pair of sleeping pants, blankets drawn to his waist. His eyes are closed, and Steve hopes he’s not stuck in the memory. Tonight was the first trigger in a while.

“Hey”, he says, and lifts up the bowl when Bucky opens his eyes. “Brought something.” Bucky’s nostrils flare and Steve smiles when Bucky realises what it is.

He climbs onto the bed, sets the bowl in Bucky’s lap, and then sits next to him, shoulders bumping as Bucky picks up a piece. Steve watches Bucky’s eyes close as he savours the fruit, as he moves it around his mouth, as he swallows it.

“I don’t hear you having some”, Bucky says, and Steve takes a piece, making exaggerated chewing noises.

Bucky’s flagging as they finish, head dipping towards Steve, only to jerk back up. Steve exchanges the bowl for the washcloth and then picks up Bucky’s metal hand, wiping it clean of plum juice before setting it back on the bed and picking up his flesh hand.

“Bucky?”

“Mmm.”

“Just going to the kitchen.”

He comes back to find Bucky lying facing Steve’s side of the bed. The bedcovers are only up to his elbows, so once Steve has changed, he pulls the covers up to Bucky’s neck before climbing in. 

Bucky is breathing smoothly, calmly, but moves towards him when the mattress dips, and so Steve puts an arm around him, closes his eyes, mirrors his breathing, and waits for sleep to take him.


End file.
